Darfur

The situation in Sudan’s Darfurregion - one of the world’s poorest - is deplorable. Not onlyAmerica but the entire developed world should be doing more to stop thegenocide there.

For many years, the Sudanese farmers and Arabnomads have been rivals for the resources of their land. Now the landwhere the African people have been living is being purified, byArab janjaweed militia that may or may not be receiving funds from theKhartoum government. About one-sixth of Sudan’s population, onemillion people, are believed to be on the move.

All that is left in many villages areashes and the burnt memories of farmers and their families. They havebeen forced from their homeland and many are now refugees in their owncountry while over 100,000 more have fled to Chad.

One accountfrom BBC’s Isabel Matheson spoke of a young girl with fivesiblings who had lost her parents in the “cleansing.” Thegirl had only a small bowl of cold porridge to feed her five siblings,one of whom was only three. Another account shared the story of a21-year-old woman who lost her husband, brothers and aunts in an attackon her village. The woman blamed the attacks on the government andmilitants.

What crimes have these people committed to deservethe scorched-earth policy being inflicted on them? None, in my opinion.And is this not similar to the Holocaust? I believe it is, and ifsomething is not done to stop the horrific crimes against humanity beingcommitted in Darfur, then once again the world will lose an unknownnumber of people just as we did in Rwanda.

Sudan’sgovernment has promised humanitarian access, Human Rights Watch reports,but news of the government tampering with mass graves and other evidencesuggest it is fully aware of the immensity of its crimes and is nowattempting to cover up any record.

America and other nations havethe responsibility to stop genocide wherever it occurs. As of earlyJanuary, according to ABC News, 1.7 million people are homeless and some70,000 are estimated to have died in Darfur. We need to do something.Now.